During his keynote speech to the Conservative Party conference in Manchester this morning, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed that local rail users, communities and businesses are to benefit from the electrification of the North Wales Main Line.
Commenting on the announcement, Robin said:
“Over the past 20 years, the people of north Wales, and the people of Aberconwy, have grown used to being overlooked and underfunded. I welcome today’s announcement, and I look forward to working with the Government, and with communities here in Aberconwy, to ensure that this unprecedented £1 billion in investment is delivered as quickly as possible.
“South Wales is already benefiting from £734 million of investment in the South Wales Metro, which is due to be completed by the end of this year. This infrastructure project consists of the electrification of the Core Valleys lines and a further £50 million investment in the integration of the Cardiff Capital Region Metro. By contrast, across north Wales, the only rail investment in recent decades is the re-signalling between Chester and Llandudno Junction here in Aberconwy, which was completed in 2015.
“In fact, the last great infrastructure investments across north Wales have been the development of the A55 road. There was of course the construction of the Conwy tunnel in the late 1980s. Admittedly, at the time, it was the largest engineering project in Europe—and then the completion of the dual carriageway of the A55 across the Isle of Anglesey, or Ynys Môn, in 2000. These works removed crippling bottlenecks in Conwy and across Anglesey.”
Continuing, he said:
“Good transport connectivity is crucial to Levelling Up our local economy and I have campaigned for this investment since being elected in 2019. I ensured that the UK Government’s Hendy Union Connectivity Review highlighted the strategic importance of the North Wales corridor to the United Kingdom. People from across Aberconwy have told me in their thousands that they want better rail services and I have regularly shared the results of my Aberconwy Rail Users’ Survey with Ministers, Network Rail, Avanti West Coast and Transport for Wales.
“In November last year I secured an important debate in Parliament to call for investment into the North Wales Main Line to be prioritised and in August I invited the Railway Minister to Aberconwy to see for himself the importance of the route and to highlight the changes that passengers want – faster, frequent and reliable services and good value for money.”
Concluding, he said:
“This unprecedented £1 billion investment into North Wales will put London within three hours of the university city of Bangor, and within two hours of north-east Wales. This would transform inward private investment and enable remote working for most of the population of north Wales, especially the more deprived parts of north-west Wales.
“It will promote the advanced manufacturing cluster which exists across north-east Wales, Cheshire and Wirral - a leading global advanced manufacturing cluster with an economic output of £35 billion per annum. Better quality, faster access to London, Manchester and the rest of the UK rail will unlock further private sector investment and growth for this sector. It will also help to support jobs in Aberconwy’s crucial tourism sector by cementing our status as a world leading visitor destination.”
